1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an information recording medium such as paper for recording so-called multimedia information containing audio information such as voices and music, video information obtained by a camera, video device or the like, and digital code data obtained by a personal computer, word processor or the like in the form of optically readable code pattern, and an information reproducing device for optically reading a code pattern recorded on the information recording medium and reproducing the original multimedia information.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, as recording media for recording voices and music, various types of media such as a magnetic tape and optical disk are known. However, unit price of the media becomes expensive to some extent even if a large number of duplicates thereof are made and a large space for storing them is necessary. Further, in a case where it becomes necessary to give a medium recording sounds thereon to another person in a remote place, a lot of labor and time is taken either when it is sent by post or when it is directly handed over. Further, this is also true of so-called multimedia information containing video information obtained by a camera, video device or the like, and digital code data obtained from a personal computer, word processor or the like other than audio information.
Therefore, a group containing some of the inventors of this invention invented a system for recording multimedia information containing at least one of audio information, video information, digital code data on an information recording medium such as paper in the form of dot code as coded information or image information which can be sent by facsimile transmission and which can be duplicated in large quantities at low cost and a system for reproducing the information and obtained U.S. Pat. No. 5,896,403.
In the information reproducing system in the above International Application, a method of holding by hand an information reproducing device for optically reading and reproducing dot codes on the information recording medium, and manually scanning the device on the recording medium along the dot codes to read the dot codes is disclosed.
However, the dot code pattern itself remains in a stage in which the structure for enhancing the recording density is studied, and the information reproducing device and information recording medium in the above International Application are provided without fully taking the flexibility for the future change into consideration.
To reliably reproduce the code pattern is expected.
This invention has been made in order to solve the above problems, and an object of this invention is to provide an information reproducing device and information recording medium capable of reliably reproducing code patterns and dealing with code patterns even if the code pattern structure itself is changed in the future.
According to one aspect of this invention, there is provided an information reproducing device comprising first hierarchical processing means for optically reading a code pattern from an information recording medium having a portion in which multimedia information containing at least one of audio information, video information and digital code data is recorded in the form of code pattern which can be optically read, converting the code thus read into code data as an image, adding information relating to the reading as first processing information to the code data and then outputting the same; second hierarchical processing means for recognizing first processing information output from the first hierarchical processing means to process code data output from the first hierarchical processing means and creating blocks by collecting the code data for each given unit and outputting the blocks; third hierarchical processing means for extracting second processing information at least necessary for creating supermacro-blocks of a larger given unit by collecting the blocks output from the second hierarchical processing means from the code data of the blocks and recognizing the thus extracted data, creating supermacro-blocks based on the second processing information, extracting third processing information for effecting the process of coping with the error from the supermacro-block and recognizing the thus extracted third processing information, effecting the process of coping with the error of the supermacro-block based on the third processing information, and outputting subset elements created by distributing the supermacro-block based on the third processing information; fourth hierarchical processing means for extracting fourth processing information at least necessary for creating a subset from the subset elements output from the third hierarchical processing means from the subset element and outputting a subset created based on the fourth processing information, the subset being constructed by codes of a given unit which permits the multimedia information to be restored; and output means for outputting the subset output from the fourth hierarchical processing means as the restored multimedia information, wherein the third hierarchical processing means includes block code data linking means for re-constructing code data of the block by the second processing information; macro-block header constructing means for collecting a plurality of blocks of first data provided in given positions in the respective block code data linked by the block code data linking means to construct macro-block header information; and supermacro-block constructing means for collecting second data other than the first data in the respective block code data to construct the supermacro-block according to the macro-block header information constructed by the macro-block header constructing means.
According to another aspect of this invention, there is provided an information reproducing device comprising first hierarchical processing means for optically reading a code pattern from an information recording medium having a portion in which multimedia information containing at least one of audio information, video information and digital code data is recorded in the form of code pattern which can be optically read, converting the code thus read into code data as an image, adding information relating to the reading as first processing information to the code data and then outputting the same; second hierarchical processing means for recognizing fast processing information output from the first hierarchical processing means to process code data output from the first hierarchical processing means and creating blocks by collecting the code data for each given unit and outputting the blocks; third hierarchical processing means for extracting second processing information at least necessary for creating supermacro-blocks of a larger given unit by collecting the blocks output from the second hierarchical processing means from the code data of the blocks and recognizing the thus extracted data, creating supermacro-blocks based on the second processing information, extracting third processing information for effecting the process of coping with the error from the supermacro-block and recognizing the thus extracted third processing information, effecting the process of coping with the error of the supermacro-block based on the third processing information, and outputting subset elements created by distributing the supermacro-block based on the third processing information; fourth hierarchical processing means for extracting fourth processing information at least necessary for creating a subset from the subset elements output from the third hierarchical processing means from the subset element and outputting a subset created based on the fourth processing information, the subset being constructed by codes of a given unit which permits the multimedia information to be restored; and output means for outputting the subset output from the fourth hierarchical processing means as the restored multimedia information, wherein the third hierarchical processing means includes block code data linking means for re-constructing block code data by the second processing information; macro-block header constructing means for collecting a plurality of blocks of first data provided in given positions in the respective block code data linked by the block code data linking means to construct a macro-block header; macro-block header error correction means for subjecting the macro-block header constructed by the macro-block header constructing means to an error correction process; macro-block correcting means for correcting for an uncorrectable portion which could not corrected by the macro-block header error correction means according to a proximity macro-block header, supermacro-block constructing means for linking second data other than the first data in the respective block code data to construct a supermacro-block based on the macro-block header information subjected to the error correction by the macro-block header correction means or corrected for by the macro-block correcting means; supermacro-block error correction means for subjecting a supermacro-block constructed by the supermacro-block constructing means to error correction; and subset element constructing means for dividing and linking the supermacro-block corrected by the supermacro-block error correction means to construct a subset element.
According to still another aspect of this invention, there is provided an information recording medium comprising a sheet-form medium; and an optically readable code pattern corresponding to multimedia information containing at least one of audio information, video information and digital code data recorded on the sheet-form medium; wherein the code pattern contains processing information necessary for editing data according to a restoring processing procedure of reading the code pattern and restoring original multimedia information, the restoring processing procedure is constructed in a hierarchical form with a given number of hierarchical structures, and the hierarchical structure at least includes a first logical hierarchy having a file managing function; a second logical hierarchy having a function of creating a data transfer unit treated by time first logical hierarchy by collecting first given data units and creating and converting a second given data unit; and a third logical hierarchy having a function of reading the code pattern from the information recording medium, subjecting the code pattern to a given restoring process, and outputting the first given data unit.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.